OSLO (Reuters) – The Norwegian mainland economy could contract by as must as 4% in 2020, twice the level predicted last week, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to paralyze activity, the finance ministry wrote in a letter to parliament on Monday.
Also known as non-oil gross domestic product, mainland GDP is a key economic indicator for policy-makers when deciding how much to spend.
Spending from the country’s wealth fund, which in average years is expected to be no more than 3% of the fund’s value, could rise to between 3.9% and 4.7% in 2020, from an original plan of spending just 2.5%, the ministry said.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
